Pop & Rock Listings for Sept. 13-19

September 12, 2013

Prices may not reflect ticketing service charges. For full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. A searchable guide to these and other shows is at nytimes.com/events.

★ Alt-J (Saturday and Sunday) The winner of last year’s Mercury Prize — one of Britain’s top awards for independent albums — combines a chilled yet nebbish energy with synth-dotted art-rock and offbeat, erudite lyrics. “Tessellate,” the standout single from the band’s full-length debut, “An Awesome Wave” (Infectious/Canvasback), includes the nasal yet soulful singer Joe Newman crooning, “Triangles are my favorite shape” — a typical assertion of geekdom from a group that takes its name from the mathematical symbol for change. (Alt-J is the combination of keystrokes that will produce the delta symbol on a Macintosh computer.) Saturday at 8 p.m., Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan; $33. Sunday at 6 p.m., Central Park, Rumsey Playfield, midpark at 70th Street, (800) 745-3000, ticketmaster.com; $33. (Stacey Anderson)

Arctic Monkeys (Monday) These focused and flashy Britons bring their nervy garage rock to Webster Hall. It should agree with their all-lads-together charisma, and supports the newly released “AM” (Domino). Their fifth studio album aims for hard-rock brawn and psychedelic sprawl, as evidenced by cameos from the Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and Bill Ryder-Jones of the Coral. With Drowners. At 7:30 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600, websterhall.com/events; sold out. (Anderson)

Bilal / Gilad Hekselman / The Amigos Band (Wednesday) This lascivious, New York-based R&B crooner and his curious, frequently space-age beats would be a solid male foil to Janelle Monáe; until the cosmos align, though, he’ll have to settle for a résumé that includes collaborations with Beyoncé, Jay-Z, the Roots and Robert Glasper. He headlines the New School Jazz Alumni Night; his openers are the Israeli jazz guitarist Gilad Hekselman, with a trio, and the roots-music-oriented Amigos Band, featuring Brianna Thomas as a guest singer. At 8 p.m., Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th Street, Chelsea, (212) 414-5994, highlineballroom.com; $25 to $50. (Anderson)

Blowoff (Friday) Bob Mould, the gruff genius behind the 1980s grunge progenitors Hüsker Dü and the 1990s alt-pop rockers Sugar, has enjoyed a diversion into electronic music as a co-founder of these popular dance parties with the singer-songwriter and D.J. Richard Morel. At 11 p.m., Gramercy Theater, 127 East 23rd Street, Manhattan, (800) 745-3000, livenation.com; $15. (Anderson)

Reeve Carney (Wednesday) After slinging webs across Broadway as the hero of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” and setting traps as Taylor Swift’s reckless love interest in her video for “I Knew You Were Trouble,” Reeve Carney returns to his jazz-pop roots with a solo set. A teasing track or two from his next acting project — a biopic of the doomed singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley — may arise; expect material from his longtime rock band, Carney, as well. At 10:30 p.m., Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen Street, between Stanton and Houston Streets, Lower East Side, (212) 477-4155, rockwoodmusichall.com; $12 in advance, $15 at the door. (Anderson)

Flag (Thursday) There are a few iterations of Black Flag, the punishing hard-core punk band that pioneered the genre in the late 1970s and early ’80s: Black Flag, which features the band’s founder and guitarist Greg Ginn and emphasizes new material, and Flag, which includes the former band members Keith Morris and Dez Cadena and pushes older fare. Flag storms Irving Plaza on this night. At 7 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800, irvingplaza.com; $29.50. (Anderson)

Zola Jesus and J.G. Thirlwell (Saturday) Zola Jesus is a Russian-American sphinx with a piercing wail and electro-industrial melodicism; her 2011 album, “Conatus” (Sacred Bones), landed like a heavier screed from Siouxie Sioux. The dark momentum lessened not the slightest on “Versions” (Sacred Bones), a set of collaborative remixes with the avant-garde composer JG Thirlwell that was released this summer. At 8 p.m., Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral, 113 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, lepoissonrouge.com; $20 in advance, $22 at the door. (Anderson)

★ Kacey Musgraves (Thursday) She sings with a down-home drawl, but the country singer-songwriter is full of ambition as she sings cleverly of breaking free from her small-town doldrums and finding romance, if only for one evening. “Same Trailer Different Park” (Mercury Nashville) is unerringly assertive. At 9 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (800) 745-3000, boweryballroom.com; sold out. (Anderson)

Oneohtrix Point Never (Tuesday) The local experimental artist-producer Daniel Lopatin is a curious creature. His textural, ethereal work brims with dark ideas and realized wanderlust; though almost all of the tracks on “Replica” (Mexican Summer/Software) clock in at under five minutes (brevity itself in the avant-garde world!), they feel meaningful and complete. He leaps to the prominent Warp Records for his new effort, “R Plus Seven,” due out on Sept. 30. With Chris Madak. At 8 p.m., Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral, 113 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, lepoissonrouge.com; $20 in advance, $22 at the door. (Anderson)

Pixies (Tuesday through next Friday) Their once-incendiary reunion has softened into disappointingly staid nostalgia, thanks to a noticeable lack of new material until only recently. The bassist-singer Kim Deal left the group this summer (she has been replaced by Kim Shattuck of the Muffs on their current tour), though the remaining members soldier on. Still, given the famously wrathful dynamic of these alt-rockers, an uneventful decade-long second life is its own accomplishment. They finally released some new music this month, the four-song “EP-1.” With Reignwolf on Tuesday and Wednesday, Meg Myers on Thursday and Parquet Courts next Friday. Tuesday, Wednesday and next Friday at 9 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (800) 745-3000, boweryballroom.com; sold out. Thursday at 9 p.m., Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth Street, Brooklyn, (718) 486-5400, musichallofwilliamsburg.com; sold out. (Anderson)

Washed Out (Wednesday) Though the subgenre name of chillwave is irritating enough to be counterproductive, the Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Ernest Greene’s electro soundscapes and muffled, near-R&B vocals are genuinely meditative. His debut disc, “Within and Without” (Sub Pop), folds back on itself in mewling, not unlikable tinny repetition. With Haerts. At 9 p.m., Terminal 5, 610 West 56th Street, Clinton, (800) 745-3000, terminal5nyc.com; $25 to $30. (Anderson)

Chelsea Wolfe (Friday) Los Angeles is scrutinized with fresh malaise by Ms. Wolfe, whose yelps skip along shuddering, foreboding folk-metal in “Apokalypsis” (Pendu Sound). The dark, aching glamour suits her, if not Rodeo Drive. She’s supporting a her fourth album in three years, “Pain Is Beauty” (Sargent House), released this month. With True Widow. At 9 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (800) 745-3000, boweryballroom.com; $15. (Anderson)

★ Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Thursday) Is the sun setting on Karen O’s bright grin? The formerly buoyant frontwoman of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs — known for her onstage beaming as much as her yelping punk pipes — leads the New York rockers into a veritable dirge on “Sacrilege,” the first single from the band’s most recent album, “Mosquito” (Interscope). Its dark choral opacity — paired with a brilliant video about the hypocrisy of expunging sin — suggests dark but newly enlightened times ahead for the band. With Har Mar Superstar. At 8 p.m., Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Avenue, at Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, (800) 745-3000, barclayscenter.com; $29.50 to $49.50. (Anderson)

Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band (Sunday) The polarizing performance artist is by no means a recluse — in SoHo, a blip in the peripheral vision often means she is speed-walking by — but her Plastic Ono Band rarely performs in the city. This piercing avant-garde group — co-founded by her husband, John Lennon, before the dissolution of the Beatles — releases “Take Me to the Land of Hell” (Chimera) on Tuesday and features fellow experimentalists Tune-Yards, Nels Cline and Questlove. At 9 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (800) 745-3000, boweryballroom.com; sold out. (Anderson)

Youth Lagoon (Thursday) This lo-fi psychedelic pop project from the 20-something singer-songwriter Trevor Powers folds in on itself like a pained personal retreat from reality. On his new and engrossing second record, “Wondrous Bughouse” (Fat Possum), Mr. Powers unveils an achingly macabre dimension. In one song he wails at the bedside of a dying relative as he imagines his own body below dirt. With Pure X and Tezeo. At 9 p.m., Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, near Thompson Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 505-3474, lepoissonrouge.com; $20. (Anderson)